


Gabriel Novak and the Very Very Very Long Wait

by StarlightDragon



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Elementary School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Cute Kids, Fluff, GABRIEL IS REALLY TINY, Impatient Gabriel, Kid Fic, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Minor Charlie Bradbury/Jo Harvelle, Minor Jody Mills/Donna Hanscum, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, kind of???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-16
Updated: 2016-04-16
Packaged: 2018-06-02 14:58:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6570661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightDragon/pseuds/StarlightDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Gabriel Novak had to wait to meet his soulmate; and one time the wait was over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gabriel Novak and the Very Very Very Long Wait

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bluejorts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluejorts/gifts).



> Hi Amber. So I'm a little shit and like three months ago I asked Itch when your birthday was and what kind of fics you liked and he said British soulmate AUs so... I wrote you a British soulmate AU. Happy birthday, hope it's a great one lad.
> 
> @ everyone else - as of yesterday, I've officially been publishing SPN fic for one year, so this introduces my second year of fic writing!!

_**1** _

"Dad, how did you meet your soulmate?"

Jimmy Novak smiled down at his two sons; the one who was the spitting image of him, except for the fact that the kid never brushed his damn hair, and the one who barely looked like him at all except for the fact that his eyes had the exact same sparkle.

"Well, kids. That's an excellent story. See, when I was in the sixth form, quite a few years older than the two of you, but still young, I was in this history class. I liked history. For a while I thought I might want to study it at uni, until I changed to theology instead. And so I decided that I was going to pay attention in every single lesson. And then on the first day of school, I sat down, and there was a girl in front of me with beautiful long hair. I couldn't stop staring at it. I tried my best to focus on the teacher instead and listen to what he was saying, but how could that ever compete with the girl who sat near to me? It wouldn't. Every lesson I kept waiting for her to turn her head just a little, to hear her voice when she answered questions, to see the clouds part and the sunlight fall through the window and shine on her hair. And it took me so much time to get up the courage to talk to her, it really did, boys, I was terrified..."

When Jimmy said 'talk to her', both of his sons knew what he meant. Because it wasn't as simple as tapping her on the shoulder and asking for her name. When a person found their soulmate, anything they wrote or drew on their skin would automatically appear in the same place on the other person's skin. And both boys could imagine the terror their father had experienced, trying to decide what to write, making the move and then waiting to see if it would appear on her skin too.

"I chickened out in the end, boys. I'd like to say this was a heroic tale of me making the first move, but it really wasn't. One day she wore a shirt with a low back and she had her hair up in a bun. I reached behind myself, made a mark on the back of my neck - and a second later, I saw it show up on hers. And from that moment I knew. I'd already suspected, of course, because I couldn't imagine looking at anyone else the way I looked at her. But that was when I found out for definite. And then it was just a matter of deciding what to write to her."

"What did you write, Daddy?" Gabriel knew he shouldn't cut into the story, but he was just too excited.

His father chuckled. "I wrote, on the back of my left hand, 'Your hair is beautiful.' She blushed when she saw it, and turned to glance all round the room. I met her eyes and pointed at myself, and she smiled. After class that day, she asked, 'How did you know it was me?' And I replied, 'I just knew.'"

Gabriel giggled.

"I told her the truth later, of course, much later, when we could both laugh about it. And I like to think that I would have made myself write a message to her either way. But even if I was a bit of a coward, these things have a way of working out in the end. That's the point of soulmates, you see."

The two boys stared at their father in awe, both of them jealous and dreaming of the day when they might be able to tell such an amazing story to the people they knew.

"I wanna meet my soulmate," Gabriel pouted, and his father ruffled his hair.

"You will. Someday. When you're ready."

But Gabriel was sure that he was ready _now_.

 

_**2** _

"I'm gonna try it."

He'd waited until his dad was out of the room and he and his brother were alone, and then he'd stolen one of those thick permanent pens from out of the kitchen drawer that he could only reach if he climbed onto the worktop.

"Gabriel, no." Castiel tried to tug the marker pen out of his little brother's grip. "Anyway, it's not supposed to work until you're close by them. So unless your soulmate is Garth who lives next door I don't think they're even going to see anything."

Gabriel pouted. "Then it can't hurt to try, can it?"

He yanked the pen away from Cas and uncapped it, bending down and focusing intently on the back of his own hand.

In very slow and careful letters, so that it would be clear to anyone what he was saying, he wrote the word, _HI._

For a few seconds, both Castiel and Gabriel stared at the word, both of them holding their breath, expecting something to happen.

Nothing did.

"See. I told you so," Cas said after a minute or so of silence, sticking his nose in the air. "It was a stupid idea. You'll meet your soulmate when you're old enough."

Gabriel pulled a face. Cas was always accusing him of not being 'old enough' for things. He wasn't that small, was he? Seven was a good age. It was a lot older than six. Six year olds weren't old enough for things, but Gabriel definitely was.

"I bet you twenty pounds I meet my soulmate before you meet yours," Gabriel said, sticking his tongue out as he walked into his bedroom, banging the door shut behind him.

He flopped down on his bed and picked up his Nintendo DS, playing a few Pokemon battles until his dad came in to kiss him goodnight and switch off the light. He told his dad goodnight and that he would go to sleep right away, and then as soon as the door was shut, he made a tent with his duvet and switched his DS back on.

The light from the console caught on his hand.

Right beneath the HI that hadn't been scrubbed off when he'd washed his hands earlier, was another word, in small neat handwriting.

_Hello._

Gabriel's breath caught in his throat. He wanted to cry out in delight. He wanted to get up and run into Castiel's room as fast as he could, waving his hand in Cas' face and saying that he knew it, of course it had worked, ha ha, in your FACE, Asstiel! It didn't matter that his dad might yell at him, it would be so worth it to get one over on his big brother.

He was halfway out of bed when it occurred to him that this might be something he should keep to himself.

This was his soulmate. This was a really, really important person. And Gabriel didn't want to share them, not just yet. He didn't want Cas to be all nosy and ask too many questions and try to steal this from him.

Gabriel wasn't very good at keeping secrets, but he decided that he was at least going to try.

He walked over to his desk and picked up a pen, pushing back the sleeve of his pyjama top, and he wrote, _My name's Gabriel_. He was proud of himself for spelling his name right the first time. He wasn't very good at spelling.

Then he stared at his arm and waited, his stomach feeling all weird and twisty, like it had last week when he'd auditioned for the school play and he'd been the only kid in Year Three to try out for a real part that wasn't just the chorus.

It felt like it took years before he got a response, like Gabriel had probably grown up and got a beard and everything before he saw any other words appear, but it was actually more like a minute before he saw-

_Mine's Sam._

_Hi Sam. It's nice to meet you._

_It's nice to meet you too._

_My brother says I'm not supposed to be talking to you. But I want to._

_Maybe you should do what your brother says. This is weird._

Gabriel stared at the words, frowning. This was supposed to be his soulmate. He always expected that his soulmate would be someone exactly like him, someone who would want to break the rules with him, and the two of them would come up with crazy pranks that they could pull on everyone they knew and they wouldn't go to school ever and they'd just stay at home eating candy and painting pictures and they wouldn't go to bed until after midnight and they wouldn't have to deal with parents and it would be the best thing in the entire world. But here Sam was, trying to get rid of him?

_You're telling me you've never thought about your soulmate before?_

_I think about them all the time. Just don't think I'm allowed to write to you yet._

Gabriel scowled. Who did this kid think he was, being all patient? A grown-up or something? Gabriel didn't want a stupid grown-up as his soulmate.

_You're boring._

_I'm not boring! I just don't want you to get in trouble._

_I don't care. My dad confiscates my DS but I know where he puts it._

There was a longer pause between this message and the next one. It was like Sam was trying to decide whether he should reply or not.

_What DS games do you play?_

_I like Pokemon Heart Gold and Super Mario Bros._

_I like those too! But I don't play a lot because I share my DS with my brother._

Gabriel perked up. Maybe he would still be able to do things with his soulmate! Maybe they'd be able to play video games all day! Gabriel thought that sounded like an awesome future.

_Is he bigger than you?_

_Yes he's 11 and he always takes my stuff._

Eleven. That was a year older than even Cas. Sam's brother must be even more annoying, and Gabriel hadn't thought that was possible until just now.

_I have a big brother too. It's the worst._

_Yeah I wish it was just me and no brothers._

Gabriel nodded in agreement. That sounded like the best thing ever. Cas didn't really like playing video games so he didn't take Gabriel's DS, but he always chose what to watch on TV, and Gabriel hated that. He didn't want to share with anyone. Except...

_Me too. I'd share my DS with you and not always take it._

_I'm tired. I'm going to go to sleep now._

Gabriel pouted. He'd just been starting to like this boy.

_Okay. Can I write to you again tomorrow?_

_Yes. Goodnight Gabriel._

Gabriel drew a small heart, and then buried his face in his own pillow, embarrassed and refusing to look at his own arm.

 

_**3** _

It was a secret Gabriel carried round with himself wherever he went. Sometimes he felt like he was going to burst from it. There were days when he came so close to yelling to the whole playground, "I KNOW MY SOULMATE, ARE YOU JEALOUS?" But every time he thought he was going to give into the temptation, he didn't. Something inside his mind just wouldn't let him say it. It was way too important.

He talked to Sam every day. Sometimes he told himself he wouldn't, but it was just too exciting not to. Sam was his soulmate, and one day they were going to meet and get married and spend the rest of their lives together! Gabriel was buzzing with impatience. He wanted to meet Sam _now_. Why did this whole 'finding your soulmate' thing take such a long time?

And then they had the lesson.

"Today we're going to talk about soulmates," Mrs Hanscum beamed. She held up her own hand for a demonstration. "Now, this won't work for a lot of you, because although there is a definite way to tell who your soulmate is, it only works if they're nearby. Most of you will have soulmates that go to different schools, and maybe even live in different towns. Maybe you'll go to university with them, or they'll have the same job as you, or maybe you'll just meet them out walking your dog one day. But I'm lucky, because I found my soulmate a few years ago, and she works in this school too, as the deputy headteacher! And her office is just about close enough that she can see all my messages, which is nice, because we can talk to each other all day!"

Mrs Hanscum picked up a bright pink felt tip and wrote _Good Morning Jody!! I Love You!!_  on her hand, holding it up to show the class.

"Now, what I just wrote will show up on her hand too. She'll see it, and it's a way for us to talk that's unique because we're soulmates, and it's also the way we worked out we were meant to be together in the first place. I don't think she'd ever have believed me if it hadn't been for these marks!"

Mrs Hanscum chuckled to herself, and watched her hand. Another message appeared in small, neat black writing, as though by magic. 

Most of the rest of the class leaned forward in awe, as though they'd never seen anything like it before. Gabriel didn't move. He saw it every day, and he had to say, it was a lot more special when the messages were coming from Sam. Not that Gabriel was biased or anything, but his soulmate was way better than anyone else's.

Mrs Hanscum held up her hand so that everyone in the class could see the reply of _Good morning. I hope your class is going well._ Then, she continued with her speech.

"But once, Jody took the netball team to France for a competition, and then we couldn't see each other's messages at all, because we weren't close by!"

Gabriel frowned. He knew his soulmate wasn't close by. He'd tested it out. He'd looked for every Sam in the school and did just what his dad had done, made a mark where the Sam wouldn't be able to see it and walked past them, looking to see if it would appear. It didn't. 

"Mrs Hanscum?" He waved his hand in the air.

"Don't interrupt me when I'm talking, Gabriel. But, yes, what is it?"

Gabriel took a deep breath. "What if, what if not everyone's the same?"

"Do you mean that you think some people might not have a soulmate?" Mrs Hanscum asked. "Because different people have different opinions on that. Not everyone finds their soulmate, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have one. So that's something that you can reach your own decision on."

Gabriel shook his head. "No, I mean what if not everyone has to be close to their soulmate to get their messages? What if someone had a soulmate, in, like..." Gabriel squinted and tried to think of a faraway place, "Antarctica, or something, so they were in England and their soulmate was in Antarctica, and they were still getting each other's messages?"

Mrs Hanscum frowned for a moment, but then her face split into a huge smile. "Gabriel, that's exactly the kind of creativity we're looking for here."

Gabriel jerked in surprise. He wasn't really used to being praised by the teachers. He often came up with crazy ideas in the middle of lessons, but usually they were shot down and he was told to focus on the assignment. Apparently not today.

"Me?" he asked, stupidly, because who else could she possibly have been talking to.

"Yes, you, Gabriel," she chuckled. "Class, your assignment today is to write a story. And it has to have something to do with soulmates. A good place to start is with two soulmates meeting for the first time, but you don't have to stick to that, you can do any kind of story that inspires you. So yes, Gabriel, you can write about someone with a soulmate in Antarctica, if you'd like to, even though I don't think that's really something that happens in real life."

Gabriel pulled a face, because what did Mrs Hanscum knew? Her wife worked in the same school, but that was just one person. She didn't know about every soulmate in the world ever.

There were a few other questions from the class, but Gabriel barely paid attention to them. He vaguely heard someone mention 'what if there were three people who were all soulmates with each other', and somebody else ask 'what if two people were soulmates but then they stopped seeing each other's messages', but neither idea distracted him. 

He put pen to paper and began to write about Sam.

 

_**4** _

It was a Thing. The first person in any class, any club, any group of friends to meet their soulmate got bragging rights for probably the rest of eternity. It was an automatic status symbol, and put them above everyone else in the group. If anyone else in the group tried to make them do something, they had an automatic out. "Can I have some bubble gum?" "I don't have to give you anything, _I_ found my soulmate."

Gabriel was cool anyway. Or, at least, he thought he was cool. But he still desperately wanted to be the first, and always had done.

Which was why it took him so much by surprise when his friend Charlie came running into their Year Four classroom shortly before the summer holidays started, her red hair flying around her face and her cheeks glowing in excitement.

"What's so exciting?" Gabriel asked when she leaped onto his desk and sat crosslegged right in front of him, figuring that a new Harry Potter book had come out or something, because that was the thing that Charlie usually screamed about.

"I found my soulmate!" she yelled, loud enough for the entire classroom to hear.

Every conversation in the room stopped, and thirty small faces turned to stare at the awkward, nerdy girl who they'd all assumed would be one of the last people to ever find their soulmate.

"Well? Who is it?" someone finally asked, and it could have been anyone, because all of them were impatient to hear the details. 

Charlie took a deep breath, relishing in the fact that she had the whole room's attention, but also unable to drag things out for too long because she was just so excited. "Her name is Jo and she's really pretty and kind and she goes to Brownies with me and I went to talk to her cause she was reading the Hobbit and that's the best book in the world and we started talking and we tried the writing on our hand as a joke but it worked! And we're gonna move to the seaside when we grow up and have three dogs together!"

As soon as she was done with her story, the rest of the room broke out in a flurry of jealous questions, and it seemed like everyone there wanted to know some more, and wanted to have some kind of contact with this girl who'd actually achieved what the rest of them could only dream of.

Gabriel leaned back in his seat, feeling himself fill with bitter disappointment.

It wasn't _fair_. Charlie hadn't been the first at all, not really. _He'd_ been the first, because he'd met Sam nearly two years ago now, which was probably before Charlie had even started the stupid Brownies. But nobody knew about Sam so now Charlie was getting all the questions and all the fame and he was just sitting here, with everyone completely ignoring him.

But part of him thought that the other kids wouldn't even believe him if he did tell them. It wasn't like he and Sam were the most normal soulmates. He didn't have a story of how he'd met his soulmate like Charlie did, or like his dad did, because they hadn't actually met, and probably nobody else would think it was even possible to have a soulmate in the way Gabriel did.

It occurred to Gabriel that he could prove it by showing everyone Sam's messages, by writing something and having them all watch and wait for Sam's reply. It would totally work, but the thought made him feel kind of crawly. 

And once he'd had that thought, he couldn't help but wonder if this was happening to Sam too. Did Sam know anyone who'd met their soulmate? Had he done what Gabriel had just thought of and proved it to people so he could be the cool one?

Everyone else in the room was still caught up in Charlie's news, so it was easy for Gabriel to pull a pen out of his pocket and scrawl a note on his arm.

_Have you told anyone you talk to me?_

_No it's a secret._

Gabriel supposed he felt a little bit better knowing he wasn't the only one. Maybe they could get through this together, even while they were such a long way apart.

But still. He'd better find Sam soon. Like, tomorrow. He wasn't sure how much of this he could take.

 

_**5** _

"Gabriel, what do you think kissing feels like?"

They were in Gabriel's living room, cross legged on the floor, both of them staring at the TV. Doctor Sexy was on, and they weren't really supposed to be watching it, because Jimmy said it was a programme for grown-ups and that meant it wasn't appropriate. But Gabriel and Balthazar were the only two in the house right now, so they could watch whatever they wanted. And right now on the screen, Doctor Sexy had just kissed Doctor Piccolo.

Gabriel frowned at the screen, tilting his head to one side. "Wet. But nice," he finally concluded, from the strange sounds and the smiles on both their faces when they pulled away.

Balthazar nodded. "Yeah. Maybe. But I wanna try it and find out."

"You do?"

"Yeah, cause, my mum always said you should only kiss your soulmate. But they're not soulmates." He pointed at the TV screen. "And they're still kissing and they seem to like it fine."

"I suppose," Gabriel frowned.

Balthazar grinned. "And you said your dad's not gonna be home for ages yet. So we could try it and nobody would know. Come on, it'll be awesome."

Gabriel nodded, a bit uncertain.

The two of them swiveled to face each other, staring into each other's eyes, and Gabriel didn't think he'd ever seen a face this close up. It was weird. He could see all the holes in Balthazar's skin.

Balthazar leaned in even closer, and now Gabriel couldn't really see anything, he was just too close, his face was too blurry and Gabriel couldn't focus and Balthazar's lips were about to-

Gabriel pulled back, launching himself onto the carpet, hitting his head hard enough to hurt.

Balthazar's lips connected with thin air and he pulled a confused face. "Gabe, you okay?"

Gabriel sat up, blushing hard and trying to recover himself without sounding like a complete loser. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just fell over is all."

"So you wanna try again?"

"Uh... actually, you know what? We haven't had any ice cream yet. I know my dad bought some really nice ice cream at the weekend and he always gives me really small bowls when I ask for some after meals and we should have really big bowls."

He stood up and hurried into the kitchen, and Balthazar followed him. "Why don't you want to kiss me?"

Gabriel spun around, holding the tub of double chocolate chip caramel swirl with marshmallows as a weapon in case Balthazar tried to make fun of him for this. "Because! It's fine if you wanna kiss people that aren't your soulmate. I bet there's lots of people at school who want to kiss you cause everyone likes you and laughs at your jokes. But I think I want to wait til I find them."

The words sounded strange to Gabriel, even coming out of his own mouth. He was endlessly curious. He didn't wait for anything ever, he always wanted to have experiences, and to know what everything felt like. He never passed up opportunities like this.

But kissing... that was saved for Sam. 

Gabriel glanced down at his own arm, almost instinctively. The messages didn't come so often these days. Both of them were working harder at school and Sam was playing in chess tournaments every weekend and Gabriel was working really hard on his art and sometimes it was hard to write things on your arm without anyone noticing. But still, Gabriel checked his arm first thing every morning and last thing at night, just waiting. And sometimes if it had been a while and he thought that Sam had forgotten him, he'd do a little drawing. A flower, or a heart, or a butterfly, just something small that he'd never show to anybody except Sam. And then a little bit later, Sam would send back _Thank You Gabriel!_ along with a little smiley face.

There was no message there now, but Gabriel knew what he wanted to write next time he sent one.

"Well, that's boring," Balthazar rolled his eyes, but he didn't push things any further. He grabbed the tub of ice cream out of Gabriel's hands and started scooping. He gave Gabriel a smaller bowl than the one he gave himself, and he didn't talk much for the rest of the night, but they were fine when they got back to school on Monday.

After Balthazar had gone home, Gabriel looked for his nicest ink pen. This was an important message so it deserved an important pen. He uncapped it and hovered with the tip pressing into his skin for a few moments. He hadn't been this nervous sending a message to Sam in years.

_Are you okay?_

Gabriel jumped and pulled the pen away from his skin. He hadn't expected Sam to see that. Now he was even more scared, though he definitely couldn't stop now, not now Sam knew that something was up.

_Have you ever kissed anyone?_

He closed his eyes and crossed his fingers. Then he remembered that if he closed his eyes, he wouldn't be able to see Sam's answer. So he opened his eyes and crossed his fingers.

_No. Have you?_

_No._

_I was w_

That was all the message said. Gabriel stared at it, his heart pounding, his breath coming faster and faster.

 _What?_ he scrawled underneath it in his messiest handwriting.

Sam amended his original message until it said-

_I was waiting for you._

 

_**+1** _

It was the first day of Year Six when it happened.

"Welcome back from the holidays, everyone! Now, as you all know, this is a very important year. You're all the oldest in the school now, and you have to start thinking about getting ready for senior school. It's going to be a big change, so we give you lots of responsibilities to make sure you're up to the challenge. And, in fact, for one of you, the first responsibility starts right now! We have a new student joining us this year, and he's only just moved to the town. I'd like one of you to look after him for his first week and make sure he knows how things work at our school. Who volunteers?"

Ten or fifteen eager hands shot up, pointing high in the air, everyone wanting to prove that they were the responsible one who was already ready to go to senior school. Gabriel didn't much care, if he was honest. It was all school, it was all the same to him no matter what. He'd go because he wanted to see his friends but it didn't really mean a lot to him.

Mrs Harvelle glanced around the room... and then her eyes fell on Gabriel. "Let's see. Gabriel Novak, I think you're just the boy for the job."

Gabriel frowned. He was slumped in his seat chewing on strawberry bubblegum with his arms folded across his chest, while he was surrounded by people who were clearly desperate for the job. Why did _he_ have to do the extra work?

"Do I have to?" he scowled.

"Yes, you do. He should be here any minute."

At that exact moment, the door swung open and the headteacher walked in, followed by a boy with long brown hair who was way too tall for his own good, although he walked a bit strangely, like he hadn't really grown into his limbs yet.

Mrs Harvelle announced, "Class, this is Sam Winchester. Sam, this is the class, we'll get everyone to introduce themselves to you in a minute. But first, this is Gabriel Novak, and he's going to be looking after you for your first week at school and make sure you settle in!"

"Hi," Gabriel squeaked, holding out a way-too-formal hand for Sam to shake-- _Sam_.

It couldn't be...

It couldn't possibly be _his_ Sam.

Sam took his hand and shook it, but he looked too terrified to actually say anything. Then, he sat down in the only empty seat in the entire classroom.

Which just happened to be right in front of Gabriel.

The rest of the class introduced themselves to Sam, and the teacher talked through register rotas and lunch monitor duties, before moving onto the actual lessons.

"Right, we're going to jump straight into the Year Six curriculum with History! This year we'll be learning about the Victorian Era..."

Gabriel liked history. His project on the Ancient Egyptians last year had got top marks and been on display in the lobby for a month. The Victorians sounded pretty cool too. There were loads of cool ghost stories and weird medicine that Gabriel was really excited to learn all about.

But somehow, Gabriel just couldn't take his mind off the boy in front of him, the way his hair sparkled in the late summer sunlight filtering through the windows...

And then the boy reached around the back of his neck, sweeping his hair over to one side, exposing a small patch of skin.

And suddenly Gabriel knew what he had to do.

He leaned back, trying to make it look like he was just stretching, and made a small mark with his pen on the back of his neck.

Then, he held his breath and waited, and not a second later, the same mark appeared on the back of Sam's neck.

It _was_ his Sam.

And in that moment it all made sense to Gabriel. Maybe everybody else had it wrong. Maybe when they said that you could only communicate with your soulmate on your skin once the two of you were close to each other... maybe it didn't mean physically close.

Maybe in a way, he and Sam had always been close, just because they'd spent so much time wishing for each other.

Gabriel had that realization and he froze in his seat, his eyes widening, his ten year old world tilting on his side as he tried to come to terms with the fact that maybe when it came to the grand cosmic working of the universe, he'd been right and everyone else had been wrong.

But really, that was nothing compared to the realization that _Sam was finally right there._

They'd always been close... and yet it still felt different now. Gabriel was still unbelievably terrified, sat there, knowing with every atom of himself that his soulmate was close enough to reach out and touch. 

Gabriel held his pen over his arm, his hand trembling. But it didn't take him long to decide what to write. His father's story from three years back was so clear in his mind, it was like his dad was sitting right next to him, urging him on, even though Jimmy didn't actually know anything about Sam. All Gabriel had to do was calm himself down enough to write the words without shaking.

It took him almost until breaktime, but finally he did it.

_Your hair is beautiful._

From this angle, Gabriel couldn't see the words appear on Sam's arm, but he heard Sam's small gasp a moment later.

The bell rang for break, and Sam turned around immediately to stare around the room, his eager hazel eyes meeting Gabriel's a moment later, both of them exchanging dorky, gap-toothed smiles.

"How did you know it was me?" Sam piped up, after they'd both stared for long enough to really take in the sight of each other for the first time. In years of writing, they'd never known each other's eye colour, or how tall the other one was. Sam had never seen the little half-smile that played across Gabriel's lips sometimes, and Gabriel had never seen the dimples in Sam's pink cheeks.

Gabriel had the perfect response. "I just knew."

Sam giggled, and it was the most amazing sound Gabriel had ever heard. It had been agony waiting to meet Sam, but hearing that one tiny little laugh had made it worth the wait.

Gabriel held out his hand to Sam, and even though Sam's hand was a lot bigger than his, they seemed to fit perfectly in each other as Gabriel led Sam out to the playground to show him around.

He thought that he would tell the truth a lot sooner than his dad had.

**Author's Note:**

> GUYS, THEY'RE SO SMALL, I CAN'T GET OVER IT.
> 
> *coughs* you can find me at **casandsip.tumblr.com**


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